News In Brief: France Telecom, Cisco, HP, Apple, Samsung, Foxconn

France Telecom subsidiary Telekomunikacja Polska has been ordered to pay €396 million to settle a dispute with the Danish Polish Telecommunications Group over fixed-line traffic volumes from 1994 to 2004. The French incumbent has already made provision for the pay-off, but could face further charges covering 2004 onwards.
 
Cisco has been contracted to deploy its wireless and wireline networking technology in 1,000 schools in Australia’s Victoria state, as part of a $120 million (€93 million) government investment in education infrastructure in the region.
 
Former HP boss Mark Hurd has interviewed for a position with rival Oracle, less than a month after quitting HP over an expenses and sexual harassment scandal. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison criticized HP’s board for allowing Hurd to resign, WSJ.com reports.
 
A million users signed up to Apple’s Ping social network within 48 hours of its launch last week, however the music-oriented site faced heavy criticism  from a raft of influential bloggers.
 
Samsung predicts it will generate double-digit margins on mobile phone sales during 3Q10, and will sell 25 million smartphones this year, WSJ.com reports. Separately, the firm says the Galaxy Tab, its first tablet, will ship within a fortnight
 
Foxconn has slashed its sales growth target in half to 15% due to slumping PC sales.